A Sense of The Dramatic
by Newtinmpls
Summary: Spoilers for the game: The first time I played the Borderlands 2 fight to find Bloodwing, I was caught up in the urgency, and very aware that Gaige as a character was smarter than myself as a player. She would have "seen it coming" and improvised a plan. Have I mentioned that I hate Jack?
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: I recently played the in-game story-line relating to the fate of Mordecai and his relationship to Bloodwing. So: Spoilers. And more than that; I hate the in-game ending so much I had to write a fanfic to re-imagine it. Oh and I rarely play Kreig, so I have seriously re-imagined his "other voice"._

 **Standard disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2, any of it's characters, or any of the other wondrous creations of Gearbox Software, 2K Games or Iron Galaxy Software. However I certainly lay claim to misspellings, mistakes, tweaks, spells and characters of my own creation, and any re-characterization you may notice.**

Gaige stood still, staring thoughtfully down at the spattering of dried blood and feathers in the center of the huge room. Prison. Cage. Dimly she listened to Mordecai ranting about how Jack was a son-of-something unprintable and how he, Mordecai wasn't going to do something stupid like beg for Bloodwing's life, because she could darn well take care of herself. Biting her lower lip, Gaige reached up with her mechanical hand and twirled a lock of her hair. It had originally been something she did to test the control and sensory perceptions of the new arm, and it had kind of developed into a nervous habit.

Absently she started counting the feathers. Feathers. Some of them were pinfeathers. Gaige knelt. One of the feathers at her feet was easily the length of her forearm. She didn't recall Bloodwing's plumage being quite so generous.

There was more here than met the eye. She knew it. Hell, everyone knew it.

But what was going on? And what could they do about it?

A crackle of static and the intercom system in the experimental zoo turned on. Jack's voice, and his tone and some of the things he wasn't saying implied he'd been following them on holo. Following the conversation with Mordecai too. Damn. For all her efforts it seemed impossible to find an ECHO frequency or a scrambling program that Jack (or maybe his software, or his programmers) couldn't crack. Well other than her private channel with Deathtrap, but that wasn't something she could easily replicate.

"Feeding time." Jack announced in an amused voice, and Gaige turned to look down the wide hall at the force field walls that had kept the various exhibits (or experiments) separate from each other. Slowly the shimmering walls of energy dissolved, and the distant sounds of growling, irritated creatures got louder and more immediate.

"THE BARBEQUE STARTS NOW!" Announced Kreig happily.

Beside the giant psycho, the tattoo covered Siren gave a slight smile, and made a gesture toward the nearest exhibit, which housed what looked to be an oversized, excessively spiked scag. It was glowing yellow-gold like the coals at the center of a bonfire. The oversized mask-wearing psycho gave her a thumbs-up and then charged happily toward that exhibit.

Gaige did a quick internal count. At least six cages. Most of them seemed to only have one occupant; two at the most. It was odd, as all the creatures she could see appeared to be skags or spiderants. Both were almost always found in groups. Maybe this meant that any of them housed together would fight too readily and ruin the experiment.

That pointed to increased aggression as one experimental change. What else might have been done to them?

All of this went through her head in a moment as she watched Kreig slice into the creature with what was actually a bayoneted sniper rifle, but in the giant psycho's hands it looked a lot like a giant Bar-b-que fork. He thrust it into the creature's body, and flame washed from the auto-support vents and swept over the spine covered beast.

And did nothing.

Oh the point of the bayonet cut into the skag's hide, and the muzzle ripped off one of the spines on its shoulder, but the hide didn't singe at all, much less catch fire; the flame didn't seem to have any effect on the creature. The giant skag snarled and leapt forward, fangs open and drooling, claws extended.

Maya raised a hand, and violet light blossomed around the growling beast, holding it aloft.

Gaige raised her signal arm. "Robot." She called. "Analysis mode."

Kreig frowned "BAD MUSIC, BAD MELODY" he bellowed, and chunking the mostly useless sniper rifle into a holster across his back, brought out his preferred weapon; his buzz axe. To Gaige it always looked like a nightmarish oversized pizza cutter. The big handle fit to his huge fist, and the chainsaw edged-blade squealed slightly as it started to spin. He leapt up and slammed the thing down into the forehead of the mostly immobile but still growling skag.

The nanocloud swarmed out of Gaige's signal arm, coalescing into the familiar hover-rocket-suspended torso of D374-TP. Instead of his standard scything attack hands, he had analysis modules and a variety of sensors at the end of each arm.

Bits of blood and thicker things spattered in a wide arc from Kreig's weapon. As the Skag tried ineffectually to claw its attacker away, a small beep sounded in Gaige's earpiece. Scrolling text from Deathtrap superimposed itself over the bottom of her field of vision:

 _Subject One: Alpha Skag; gender: male; size: 267% of normal for species; Coloration: yellow/orange spectrum, abnormal for species; anomaly: appears to take no detrimental effects from flame based weaponry, resistance to physical attacks appears within normal range. Tentative conclusion: coloration indicative of resistance._

As Kreig finished dismembering the skag's head, Maya's attention was already focused on the creatures emerging from the next exhibit. Two spiderants, both of whom would be large for warriors, but who bore the smoother shells and digging pedipalps that marked them as worker/harvesters. Aside from their excessive size, both had an unusual but distinctive sickly green tinge to their shells.

Maya was sighting with her enhanced sniper rifle.

 _Speculation._ Deathtrap's comment started to scroll across the screen, but even before she read the rest of it, Gaige called out.

"They're probably immune to corrosive weapons!"

"Dammit." Maya didn't bother shooting; she let go with her left hand and gestured to the pair. The larger one rose, suspended by the siren's power. It struggled and flailed. Maya chuckled.

Axton started firing brief bursts from his assault rifle. "I wouldn't worry too much about the corrosive business." He sounded confident. "Regular bullets seem to work just fine."

 _Subjects Two and Three: Spiderant Workers; gender: sterile females; size: 356% and 387% of normal for species; Coloration: green/yellow spectrum, abnormal for species; anomaly. Speculation: anticipate resistance to corrosive substances._

Off somewhere to Gaige's right she heard the thunk-thunk-thunk of Axton's turret. It was followed almost immediately by a squeal and then a squelching sound as the remaining yellow-green creature took a hit and then spat out a glob of something greenish. The thick spittle landed on one of the turret's three support legs. An unpleasant hissing started.

"Sonovabitch." The ex-soldier swore. "The damn thing's spit is eating through the old lady's support legs."

Patricia Tannis' voice came over the ECHO channel. "That is exactly the sort of data I can use." She sounded eager. "You have GOT to find me more notes and samples. Pictures would be useful as well. I simply must understand what sort of experimentation was done, and how successful it was."

Gaige rolled her eyes. She wasn't entirely sure just how ethical, never mind how sane the researcher was. Roland kept insisting she was trustworthy, though, so once again Gaige set her concerns aside. She had DT snap a few stillshots of the melting turret leg, and add them to the files the team was accumulating for Tannis.

A second spatter of greenish glop came flying out of the things mouth, and before Gaige could begin to move, it landed across her right shoulder and the right side of her face. There was hissing sound as it began to eat away at her shields.

"Ouch." The electronically toned protest came from 1340, who had been converted from a loader bot to the shield the mechromancer was currently using. "That. Hurts."

Gaige drew a small pistol from her belt holster. It was a short barreled semi-automatic painted a garish red with a design of fangs all along the barrel. As the lime colored spiderant gave another cry she held the trigger down and emptied half of the oversized magazine in the direction of the creature. Instead of normal bullets, electrified compressed pellets shot out. As several of the rounds bit into the creature's pelt, larger and larger arcs of electricity jumped between the wounds, crackling and burning the creature's hide, and beginning to scorch the tender flesh beneath.

It's legs all stiffened as it was momentarily veiled in jumping sparks. Then it collapsed.

"There, Lucky 13," Gaige stated proudly. "You have been avenged."

There was the smallest of pauses. Then the 1340 said. "Thanks. Boss."

Farther away from Bloodwing's enclosure, Axton finished emptying the mag of his assault rifle into the remains of a great horned skag; it too had been the recipient of some sort of mutation experiment, and the yellow-gold color faded as it died. The soldier turned, scanning his surroundings as he reloaded his weapon. "Everyone okay?"

Kreig answered in the pedantic murmur the team had heard from him on infrequent occasion. "This misguided facility exemplifies an unfortunate misuse of the gift of science to create tragedy and pain, when surely the aspiration of human achievement should be beauty and joy." He then threw back his head and let out a growl of frustration. "YOU ARE PRETZLING MY LOBES!" He smacked himself in the forehead, hard, with his Buzz Axe. The mask he wore blocked most of the impact, but a trickle of blood ran down the side of his face.

Gaige shrugged, and answered. "Well, Axe, I think that 'okay' is about as good as it gets for some of us."

Axton rifled through the desks in the office between exhibits. "Nothing much here. A sample of something I'll save for Dr. Tannis, and some ECHO recordings, but this place looks to have been cleared out. Knew we were coming, you think?"

Modecai's voice came urgently over the ECHO channel. "Hey amigos, I'm seeing some sort of commotion in the observation wing".

Maya slowly walked back into the cage with "Bloodwing" scrawled over the door. She gathered up most of the feathers on the floor, using the faintest whisper of her power to cleanse the blood from them.

Most of the feathers were just as oddly large as the one the mechromancer had examined earlier. And now cleaned off, all of the feathers were white.

Gaige frowned. Hadn't Boodwing's plumage been brownish? "What is going on here?" She murmured, half to herself.

Jack's chuckle came over the intercom. "Oh, and about Bloodwing? I moved her. Somewhere more … dramatic."


	2. Chapter 2

_Authors note: I recently played the in-game story-line relating to the fate of Mordecai and his relationship to Bloodwing. So: Spoilers. And more than that; I hate the in-game ending so much I had to write a fanfic to re-imagine it. Oh and I rarely play Kreig, so I have seriously re-imagined his "other voice". As for details of the Arena fight with Bloodwing; again, liberties. Ooops.  
_

 **Standard disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2, any of it's characters, or any of the other wondrous creations of Gearbox Software, 2K Games or Iron Galaxy Software. However I certainly lay claim to misspellings, mistakes, tweaks, spells and characters of my own creation, and any re-characterization you may notice.**

 _ **-In The Arena-**_

Jack's comment played in Gaige's head. Somewhere more dramatic. God the jerk liked an audience. Rather like Marcie in that respect. And ungodly rich. Also like Marcie. As the group crowded into the freight elevator and started downward, the mechromancer ran her hands over the various items hanging from her belt.

Holsters for her pistols; both the bandit-red semi-automatic electro pistol she preferred and the vladof slag-pistol she'd recently acquired from a Hyperion engineer who had made the unwise and quickly fatal choice to face off with Deathtrap.

Hanging farther back on her belt, a little more effort to reach then her guns, were a few shields. Her active shield was the one 1340 had been installed into. It was a powerful Vladof shield with a thicker-than-normal energy field that (sometimes) could intercept and store incoming ordinance. She also had a couple back-ups, again obtained when their former owners died abruptly. One was an odd little Torgue number that wasn't very powerful and had a slow and annoying recharge, but rendered the wearer almost immune to explosive damage. Unfortunately it was kind of crappy against regular gunfire.

Her final "spare" shield was a Maliwan fire nova shield; it was most of the reason that Incinerator Clayton had maintained the fear and awe of his followers for so long. When active, the wearer could damn near stand in the middle of a bonfire, or possibly ride a Flame Scag (though the spikes of their hide would make for incredibly uncomfortable seating). If enough damage was done to the shield by other means, it would blast anyone nearby with a triple wash of flame. It was functional and dramatic.

As the elevator carried them downward, Axton raised an eyebrow, watching her. "So, shortstack, think you have enough equipment yet?"

Gaige smiled at him, shrugging to indicate the slender rocket launcher she had hitched over her shoulder. "Still hoping for a Rocket Launcher that will shoot electro ammo."

"Regular ordinance not being enough for you?" Axton's voice was affectionately chiding.

The mechromancer made a sarcastic sound. "Please. Why shoot regular bullets when you could be … setting someone on fire?"

Beside them, Maya flexed the fingers of her left hand. "She does have a point."

"Or in your case," Gaige nodded respectfully, indicating the tattoos that decorated the Siren's left side. "You could simultaneously levitate, compress and melt them."

Maya smiled. "I've always preferred a well-rounded approach to things."

"What ever happened to shy, demure women that needed a strong man to rescue them?" Axton inquired of no one in particular.

Kreig revved his buzz axe. "GLOWING DEATH IS THE SMELL OF SEX!"

Axton muttered "…what?"

Maya completely failed to keep a straight face. "Keep dreaming, soldier."

Gaige put in "Or stop reading those trashy Hodunk romance novels."

Axton blushed, Maya snickered, and the freight elevator came to a grinding halt. The doors opened and the soldier stepped quickly forward, hefting his assault rifle.

They stepped forward cautiously into an open area that was mostly cleared of supplies, robots, everything. The overall shape of it was oval. Gaige estimated it was about the size of a soccer field. On the ground on the far side was a slightly sunken platform with two panels visible. She wasn't sure what it was for. Some sort of landing site? Launching pad?

The all too familiar and annoying voice of Handsome Jack rang out over the arena. "Want Bloodwing back, huh? Shame - I've been doing some really interesting Eridium experiments with her. Hate to see her go, but heck with it - She's all yours."

There was a mechanical grinding sound and the two panels at the far end of the field? Loading area? Landing pad? Anyway they split slowly open.

Axton motioned Gaige to the left, and he crept forward keeping to the right.

Rising up from underneath where the panels had been, came the familiar silhouette of Mordecai's avian companion. Except …. Except it was too big. She was too big, and darker. She stood at least a good seven feet tall.

And as the platform finished rising, it became obvious that she was not just darker, but an ominous looking deep violet color. Eridium? No, thought Gaige...the color of slag.

Bloodwing gave a deafening shriek and spread her wings, leaping into flight and sending a blast of wind in all directions. She arrowed upward. Hundreds of times Gaige had watched Rakks circle or attack, and they were persistent, but somewhat clumsy fliers. Bloodwing rode the wind and circled, wings outstretched, using the barest tilt of her wingtips and tail to change direction.

"Madre de Dios…" Mordecai's voice was hushed.

Across the bottom of Gaige's field of vision, scrolling text spelled out: "Translation failure. Angry/pain…indecipherable." Her jaw dropped. In all the times that Mordecai had invited Bloodwing's comments during his ECHO casts, the mechromancer's babbletalk translation app hadn't ever been triggered.

Gaige stared up at the majestic creature. A glint at Bloodwing's neck drew the her attention. Around Bloodwing's neck was a collar. Gaige frowned thoughtfully. Mordecai had said that the chip was on her collar. Her original collar had been a leather one. The thing she wore now was a metallic circlet. Still, the tag that hung from it looked the same. Which pretty much meant nothing, at this distance.

Well, given that Handsome Jack was a really clever, really manipulative bastard, it probably did mean something.

The howls of several greenish yellow scags, entering from a small door near Axton interrupted Gaige's train of thought.

"Perhaps you'd like to meet the Missus?" Axton's voice was cheerful as he threw down the digi-template of his turret with his left hand and hefted his assault rifle in his right.

For just a moment Gaige thought he might be over-reacting. After all, the team had faced scag packs before. And weren't they just Jack's version of a distraction?

Then she heard the distinctive sound of surveyors approaching.

"THE FLEAS COME TO RIDE THE METALLIC DANCERS" Kreig's shout was enthusiastic.

Maya and Gaige spoke together. "Shit."


	3. Chapter 3

_Authors note: Regarding the fate of Bloodwing; this is seriously AU. But this is also chapter 3, so if that comes as a surprise, well... then you have been skipping past the authors notes. Which is probably just as well._

 **Standard disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2, any of it's characters, or any of the other wondrous creations of Gearbox Software, 2K Games or Iron Galaxy Software. However I certainly lay claim to misspellings, mistakes, tweaks, spells and characters of my own creation, and any re-characterization you may notice.**

 **BWBWBWBW**

Bloodwing gave a mighty beat with her wings, rising up over the loading area / arena. Krieg, Axton and the two remaining loaders were knocked against the walls of the pseudo arena. Both of the loaders collapsed in a shower of sparks.

As she arced into flight again, Mordecai cried desperately over the open ECHO channel. "The vault hunters are friends, girl, they're here to help you."

Bloodwing showed no reaction.

Gaige realized that she only heard Mordecai's plea through the ECHO network. He hadn't attempted to access any public or open speakers that were "local" to his targets, the way that Scooter sometimes did. So how did he expect Bloodwing to hear him? Of course how did he ever expect her to hear him while she was in flight? He had to have implanted an ECHO receiver into her at some point. Given her lack of reaction to any of his comments, Jack must have removed it.

Circling the arena, the now giant avian gave a cry of rage. Again Gaige's Babbletext supplied a partial translation:

 _Pain/Disorientation...command/imperative._

Another group of oversized scags charged in from the west. Before they got very far into the arena, there was a violet burst of energy as Maya phaselocked the largest one. Purple tendrils dragged at the nearby pack members, and as they were pulled together, Gaige could see them snarling in irritation at each other. So, maybe she'd been right earlier. Increased aggression. Then came the thunk-thunk-thunk of Axton's turret and between the ordinance from the Commando's "old lady", and the writhing energies of the Siren's powers the pack was reduced to a twisted, dissolving mess.

Bloodwing gave another cry, and for a moment everyone looked up at her. She gave one great beat of her wings, and for a moment she hung, an incredible violet-black shadow against the fading light of the sky.

"She is beautiful." Maya's voice was hushed.

Another beat of her wings and Bloodwing rose higher.

At first Gaige thought it was a trick of the light; but no, she was changing, somehow. The violent clearly slag-tinted hue was fading, and she was changing to a yellow-gold that shimmered in the evening sky.

Then she folded her wings and dove, but instead of coming low enough to grab with her talons, she kept them tight along her body. Her beak opened, but instead of that cry of rage came a gout of red and gold flames.

Maya was the first to dodge, a full out dive to the left. "She's breathing fire!" She rolled to the east, moving faster than the mutated skag she'd been targeting. She landed behind an ammo crate. The skag was crisped. Belatedly Gaige realized it was a damn good thing that she'd not been closer; she would have gotten hurt. But that was a passing thought.

What was going on here, really?

As the great bird passed them over, Gaige got a good look at the golden collar she was wearing. A small tag of some kind dangled from it.

The mechromancer frowned. "DT," she subvocalized silently. "What can you tell me about Bloodwing's collar?" So far Jack had never reacted to her subvocal comments to DT. She'd set up the communication coder to analyze her vocal movements. It worked because she'd replaced the fillings in three of her teeth with mini-motion sensors.

Handsome Jack's voice came over the same open ECHO channel that Mordecai was using. "Just give it up, kiddo. Bloodwing's got ALL the elements at her disposal! Slag! Fire! Electricity! Corrosion! And...and, uh...damn, I forgot the last one. What was it, again?"

Axton's mutter came from somewhere behind Gaige. "If that's true we are seriously fucked."

Deathtrap's analysis scrolled across the lower part of Gaige's visual display. _Storage datachip sealed in plas-glass with Mordecai's thumbprint. No indications that it has been accessed or tampered with._ _Explosives laced through the collar.  
_

Gaige's mouth opened, but nothing came out. Jack was going to ... he had planned this whole thing. Too late she heard Axton.

"Get moving short-stack!"

Turning to her left, pistol raised, she noticed the Hot Loader stumping toward her. It's weapon arm was already raised, and she had just enough time to think "Oh, shit".

She was blown back by an explosion that disintegrated most of her shielding and slammed her into the wall of the arena. She missed landing on an ammo crate by inches. Stunned, she couldn't stay upright. Her legs slowly gave way and she slid down the wall. The only reason that she kept hold of her pistol was that her mechanical arm was less effected by the impact than the rest of her.

She could see the end of the Loader's barrel glowing.

1340 muttered. "Oh. Shit. Boss."

In the moment when Gaige was expecting the loader to fire; two things happened. First her vision was clouded with blue. DT was recharging her shields. At almost the same moment, the loader was surrounded by violet light and rose slowly a few feet off the ground. The energies of Maya's powers coalesced on it, and the thing began hissing and collapsing.

All around her it was chaos. Kreig was leaping up from a newly dead and still bleeding oversized scag to scramble up the stack of crates she'd slammed against. He was completely focused on a small repair drone circling the arena.

"THE METAL FLEAS COME TO DANCE! JACKETS OF LIGHT!" The psycho leapt up, throwing his buzz axe in the moment when the repair drone stopped to hover over a severely damaged loader. The axe carved through one of the surveyor's wings with a cascade of sparks. The wing spun off to the right, the little drone dropped onto a set of metal storage boxes, gave off another shower of sparks, and fell to the ground. The buzz axe continued on it's circuit like a demented boomerang, eventually returning to Kreig's hand. It landed jagged blade first, but he didn't seem to notice or care.

In the sky above them, Bloodwing wheeled slowly in a wide turn.

Mordecai screamed over the ECHO. "Goddammit! Just-just weaken her and I'll hit her with a tranq!"

Axton took careful aim at a nearby loader, taking out it's joints with short bursts of ammo. "Right." He said sarcastically. "Tranq her and we'll just borrow a constructor to scoop her up and carry her home."

Gaige commented. "I don't think that would work. The arms really aren't long enough."

Handsome Jack spoke mockingly. "You really aren't thinking this through, are you? Bloodwing has more power now than you do. Slag. Fire. Electricity."

With another shriek, Bloodwing dove toward them, this time claws outstretched. Her claws crackled with energies; blue sparks arced from one talon to another.

"Yes." Axton commented dryly. "Fucked."


	4. Chapter 4

_Authors note: And yet still more AU. But based entirely on things I think coulda shoulda happened in-game. Because really, that's the whole point of fanfic, isn't it?_

 **Standard disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2, any of it's characters, or any of the other wondrous creations of Gearbox Software, 2K Games or Iron Galaxy Software. However I certainly lay claim to misspellings, mistakes, tweaks, spells and characters of my own creation, and any re-characterization you may notice.**

 **~~Tag, You're It~~**

As Bloodwing dove, crackling energies lashed out from her talons.

Axton dove out of the way, making a neat dive-and-roll that took him out of range of the mutated avian's blast. Unfortunately his turret had no such mobility. There was a shower of sparks and the turret went quiet.

"Son of a fucking bitch." Axton tried to trigger the recall on the turret, but there was no response.

Gaige had been close enough to the blast to feel some of it, but her shields, recently replenished by DeathTrap, reduced the impact to a series of tingles down her left side. She staggered a bit, one foot kicking a triangular section of metal. The remains of the wing of one of the repair drones that Kreig had taken out.

"1340," Gaige murmured thoughtfully. "Could you pilot a drone?"

"That is unadvisable. Boss. In that event. I will try. To murder you."

Gaige scanned the horizon. There had to be more of the little annoyances around. "Not if I disable the weapons systems." She responded absently.

"Ouch. But I like killing. Things."

"Hey Krieg," Gaige opened her ECHO channel. "Can you catch me a repair drone or two?"

The big man chuckled. Tilting his head to one side, he tracked a drone approaching from the far end of the arena. However instead of gun or buzz-axe, when it got close enough to fire the first shot, Kreig threw the body of one of the oversized skags at it. The spiked corpse spun through the air. The lithe drone easily dodged it.

And flew right into the jagged blast of lightning that Bloodwing had just issued.

The repair drone gave a crackle, it's LED display went out, and it dropped like a stone.

Right into Kreig's waiting hand.

He smiled and wiggled it, somewhat like a child playing with a toy. "STAY near me" He said softly, speaking to the now quiescent drone, not to the girl. "do not take thy flight! A little longer stay in sight!" (**1)

Then he handed it to the Mechromancer.

Maya raised a delicate eyebrow. Under her breath, and much too softly for the big man to hear she added, "Much converse do I find in thee / Historian of my infancy!" (**1)

Job done, Kreig bounded off, buzz axe in hand to meet a group of greenish skags.

"Fuckin' Awesome!" Gaige eagerly took the drone. She crouched down behind some crates and started unscrewing the belly plates. "I've got a totally genius idea!"

"Really Gaige," Maya commented in a dry tone. "As genius as the time you 'upgraded' Zed's medihypo's to include 'a little bit of caffeine'?"

"Well-" Gaige sputtered.

Axton interrupted them. "Incoming Skags, shortstack."

Gaige scrambled back as an oversized reddish skag leapt over the crate to land where she'd just been crouching. "Dammit, quit interrupting me." Rather than go for a gun, though, she reached around to the back of her belt. There was a flicker in the force-field that surrounded her. She blew a raspberry at the skag. "Do your worst, bar-b-que breath."

The skag gave an irritated roar, and then bracing itself, opened it's excessively wide maw and vomited a huge wash of flame over the cross-legged mechromancer.

Gaige continued tinkering with the drone, ignoring the flames washing over her shield. The blast of fire completely obscured her, and reduced several nearby crates to bubbling puddles of noxious smelling goo.

A little distance away, the oversized Alpha flame-skag was slowly being shriveled by Maya's phaselock.

"Check on her, Axe!" The Siren sounded worried.

"Damn," Axton muttered, half to himself, and then once he could see her clearly, his voice got louder. "Nothing; she's fine."

The side of Gaige's mouth twitched in a grin as she worked as fast as she could. "What can I tell 'ya, that bastard Incinerator Clayton had some very fine tech." After a moment she added. "And I improved it." Her tone was smug.

In it's usual clipped voice, 1340 corrected her. "You mean. Zed. Upgraded."

Axton chuckled.

Gaige flushed. "Hey, I did the schematics to find an improved power source adapter."

"I love. Being powerful." 1340 sounded pleased.

Reaching behind her to the last shield on her belt, Gaige began dismantling it. Between the disassembled shield, the partially disassembled drone and the remains of the various crates and their contents, she was surrounded by a collection of metal scraps, screws and assorted parts. "Well, Lucky 1340," She muttered as she worked. "Prepare for a massive upgrade."

"Yes. Boss."

"Because," She frowned and chewed on her lip as she rapidly re-assembled the drone, "I have got," She trailed off, frowning as she ratcheted screws back in place.

"A totally. Genius. Plan." 1340 finished for her.

"Just give it up, kiddo." Jack's voice dripped with sarcastic mock sympathy. "Bloodwing's got ALL the elements at her disposal! Slag! Fire! Electricity! Corrosion! And...and, uh...damn, I forgot the last one. What was it, again?"

Gaige's face lost some of it's color and she kept her concentration on the drone. "Explosives." She whispered. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you." Behind her she could hear the sounds of combat. The crunch of a loader being seriously damaged wasn't enough to bring her a smile.

Over the comm system, Mordecai yelled, "Bloodwing, down! Heel! Never thought I'd say this, but stop fighting!"

Maya gestured and a pack of flame-hued slags suddenly slammed together in a hissing, struggling mess. "She can't hear you Mordecai."

"Of course she-" There was a pause, and then a stream of rapid-fire Spanish profanity. "You're gonna regret ever dragging Bloodwing into this, Jack! You're gonna watch her tear your fucking throat out!" Then in a much louder tone, Mordecai added, "She's got her sights on you, Axton! MOVE your ass, Jefe!"

Axton called out, "Heads up shortstack, you've got two incoming loaders."

"I do NOT have time for this shit," Gaige snarled. "Keep them off of me, I'm fuckin' busy here, and it's IMPORTANT!"

Deathtrap silently glided into position between her and the first loader, slicing it's arm off with his laser.

Krieg raced past the robot, yelling, initially incoherently, but as he got closer, he screamed "How can I snap your neck if you don't have one?!" Then he started laughing.

Axton triggered his turret and only got the patter of clicking that meant it was still in resetting mode. "This is no time for a coffee break, Lady mine."

"Axton, move to your three o'clock, now." Maya's voice was the crisp implacable tone of command.

Before she'd finished her sentence, Ax took a running jump and then leapt over the remains of two loaders. Behind him Bloodwing dove, and vomited a gout of greenish horror.

Axton twisted around, blasting away at Bloodwing with his machine gun. A spattering of feathers and blood drops, and an outraged cry meant he'd done some damage.

 _Translation: Anguish/hopelessness_ scrolled across Gaige's heads-up display.

At almost the same moment a loader laser impacted on Gaige's shoulder, hissing, and burning away some of the strength of her shield.

She carefully set the almost re-assembled drone aside; and then whipped around, calling up her storage deck arsenal. In a moment she was facing the loader in question wielding a rocket launcher decorated with garish red paint and drawings of fangs and teeth. "I SAID I was fuckin' busy," She unloaded a cluster of crackling blue spheres that spread initially, and then slammed into the loader as if magnetized. Then they went off in a wash of electronic fury.

The loader gave a woeful sounding squeal, and then crashed to the ground. "Initiating self-repair sequence."

Krieg's Buzz saw crunched into the loader's control panel. "NOW YOU SHOULD BE SCARED!"

Gaige practically flung herself at the little drone, and sliding one of her shields around to the front of her belt, the electo-tool fingers of her mechanical hand had it disassembled in moments. She took a single chip out, and installed it into the drone. Click, the whirring of screws and a final ratchet to make sure they were tight. "Okay, Lucky 1340" She murmured, "make me proud."

.

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**1 From: "To a Butterfly" by William Wordsworth


End file.
